Release Week: Countdown City, This is How You Die, The Long War, and Helen & Troy’s Epic Road Quest

JULY 10-16, 2013: Well… yet another Release Week post coming nearly a week late. I could try to excuse this with time spent on a lot of additions to the “Coming Soon” listings, including Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam (September 3), James Gunn’s Transcendental (August 27), Mur Lafferty’s Ghost Train to New Orleans (March 4, 2014) and, well, too many to list up here. But! Honestly I’ve had it mostly ready since mid last week, and just couldn’t find the time to finish it up. On the plus side, it allowed time to finish Countdown City so I could give it a bit of a nicer writeup, which it well deserves. Enjoy! I’m catching up on a wonderful title from 2012, Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore — what are you listening to this week?

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

Countdown City: The Last Policeman, Book 2 By Ben H. Winters, Narrated By Peter Berkrot for Brilliance Audio, concurrent with the print/ebook release from Quirk Books. This is the one where I was looking at this week’s titles and said: yup, this is the book to start with, and so that is exactly what I did. I really liked The Last Policeman and Countdown City turns the ratchet up a notch on the impending global doom of “Maya”, a planet-killing asteroid on a collision course for Earth. Less than three months to go, but hey, who’s counting? Everyone. Here, Countdown City starts with a missing persons case, but with people going “Bucket List” left and right, and the shutdown of the adult crimes investigative division, it’s anything but easy to even begin. On to the University of New Hampshire campus — now a student-led anarchist squat — and through a few twists and turns, though not quite as tightly-plotted as the first book it’s still a fantastic listen. I could easily stand for this series to give us several more books before the asteroid hits, and then, hey, gives us a series of detective novels set in a post-apocalyptic landscape reminiscent of The Road. Mr. Winters and Quirk Books, along with Brilliance Audio and narrator Berkrot, make like Henry Palace and just keep going.

Out in print/ebook a bit earlier this summer and now in audio this week is the sequel to last year’s The Long Earth, The Long War: The Long Earth, Book 2 by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, with narrator Michael Fenton-Stevens returning to bring the story to life for Harper Audio. Book one introduced Joshua, Lobsang, and The Long Earth (uncounted millions of alternate Earths a potato-electronic-device “step” away, one after the other), and here the story picks up: “A generation after the events of The Long Earth, humankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by “stepping”. A new “America” – Valhalla – is emerging more than a million steps from Datum – our Earth. Thanks to a bountiful environment, the Valhallan society mirrors the core values and behaviors of colonial America. And Valhalla is growing restless under the controlling long arm of the Datum government. Soon Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a building crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any humankind has waged before.” It’s a strange synthesis of Pratchett’s humor — c’mon, a potato device to reach alternate worlds, and everyone vomits after each “step” — and Baxter’s deep/hard sf worldbuilding and strange, step-wise biologies, but it works. It’s not often laugh-out-loud Discworld guffaws, nor long exposition on the micro-chemical underpinnings of evolutionary shift, but rather, well, to put it as one character: Lobsang is a distributed strong AI who also claims to be the karmic reincarnation of a Nepalese motorcycle repairman. So there’s that.

For those looking for outright guffaws this week, you could certainly do far worse than to take a chance on the latest from A. Lee Martinez, Helen & Troy’s Epic Road Quest, narrated By Khristine Hvam for Audible Inc. Orbit Books has also posted a sample of this latest comedic sf/f novel from Martinez, the author of Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain. “Witness the epic battle of the cyclops! Visit the endangered dragon preserve! Please, no slaying. Solve the mystery of The Mystery Cottage, if you dare! Buy some knickknacks from The Fates! They might come in handy later. On a road trip across an enchanted America, Helen and Troy will discover all this and more. If the curse placed upon them by an ancient god doesn’t kill them or the pack of reluctant orc assassins don’t catch up to them, Helen and Troy might reach the end their journey in one piece, where they might just end up destroying the world. Or at least a state or two. A minotaur girl, an all-American boy, a three-legged dog, and a classic car are on the road to adventure, where every exit leads to adventure. Whether they like it or not.”

Non-Fiction:9.5 Theses on Art and Class by Ben Davis (Haymarket, Jul 9, 2013) — “9.5 Theses on Art and Class and Other Writings seeks to show how a clear understanding of class makes sense of what is at stake in a broad number of contemporary art’s most persistent debates, from definitions of political art to the troubled status of “outsider” and street art to the question of how we maintain faith in art itself.”

Theatre of the Gods by Matt Suddain (Jonathan Cape UK, July 15) — Steampunk space opera: “Wholly original, and by turns annoying and exhilarating, this antidote to formula fiction reads like Douglas Adams channelling William Burroughs channelling Ionesco, spiced with the comic brio of Vonnegut.” (via The Guardian)

Cog by K. Ceres Wright (Dog Star Books, Jul 13, 2013) — “The Ryder family is at the top of the corporate elite. Father Geren Ryder heads up a global wireless hologram company with his son, Wills Ryder, a capable second, while daughter, Nicholle, is curator at an art museum. But when a dark stranger shows up, it sets off a chain reaction that puts Geren into a mysterious coma while Wills disappears with $50 billion from the family business.”

Collection: North American Lake Monsters: Stories by Nathan Ballingrud (Small Beer Press, July 16) — “These are love stories. And also monster stories. Sometimes these are monsters in their traditional guises, sometimes they wear the faces of parents, lovers, or ourselves. The often working-class people in these stories are driven to extremes by love. Sometimes, they are ruined; sometimes redeemed. All are faced with the loneliest corners of themselves and strive to find an escape.” — UPDATE: Per Ballingrud, a deal has just been inked with Audible.com to bring this to audio.

Anthology: Beacons edited by Gregory Norminton (Oneworld Publications, Jul 16, 2013) — “Beacons throws down the gauntlet, challenging best-selling and award-winning authors to imagine where we, and out planet, might be headed and, in imagining, help us transform the way we look at our world and change things for the better. From Joanne Harris’ powerful vision of a near future where ‘outside’ has become a thing of history to Nick Hayes’ beautifully illustrated tale of the bond between man and nature, Beacons sees the coming together of dystopian satire, speculative and historical fiction, metaphorical flights of fancy, quiet tragedy, and farcical comedy in stories that are as various as our possible futures. Provocative, encouraging, and deeply moving, Beacons represents the best of short story writing — and collectively illuminates the immediacy of the ecological problems at hand. All author royalties will go to the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, one of the largest groups of people dedicated to action on climate change and limiting its impact on the world’s poorest people.”

Mist by Susan Krinard (Tor, July 16) — “Urban fantasy novel, first of a series, about a San Francisco woman who discovers her boyfriend is Loki and that she’s a Valkyrie.” (via Locus Online) — Tantor Audio will publish an audio edition on August 12

Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian (Norilana Press, July 16) — “Historical fantasy novel inspired by the Persephone myth, set in an alternate Reinaissance world where Death comes to the Kingdom of Lethe to claim his bride.” (via Locus Online)

Storm Riders by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes (Tor, Jul 16, 2013) — “Epic military fantasy novel, second of a series following Shadow Raiders (2011), set in a world connected by airships where two rival empires vie for an invention that could revolutionize warfare.” (via Locus Online)

The Sorcerer’s Widow by Lawrence Watt-Evans (Wildside Press, Jul 30, 2013) — “The great wizard Nabal’s death offers many opportunities, both for those who knew him and those who did not. For young conmen Ezak and Kel, it means a chance to loot the wizard’s estate… if they can win the confidence of Nabal’s widow, Dorna. But Dorna has plans of her own. She means to leave the tiny village for a better life in the city. And all of Nabal’s wizardly artifacts and talismans will pay for that new life – if she can only get them there intact!”

The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough (Del Rey, Jul 30, 2013) — first of three books coming in rapid succession in this new series — “In the mid-23rd century, Darwin, Australia, stands as the last human city on Earth. The world has succumbed to an alien plague, with most of the population transformed into mindless, savage creatures. The planet’s refugees flock to Darwin, where a space elevator—created by the architects of this apocalypse, the Builders—emits a plague-suppressing aura.”

Anthology: The Mammoth Book of Angels and Demons edited by Paula Guran (Running Press, July 30) — UK edition was published May 16

Three (Duskwalker Cycle #1) by Jay Posey (Angry Robot, July 31, 2013) — cover reveal for this Book of Eli esque post-apocalyptic debut novel and excerpt up at io9 — audiobook coming from Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio, read by Luke Daniels

Anthology: Impossible Monsters edited by Kasey Lansdale (Subterranean Press, July 2013) — “The Lansdale name is legendary in the horror field. Now acclaimed musician and actress Kasey Lansdale follows in her father’s footsteps, making her editing debut with this anthology of monstrously innovative stories. The twelve creatures that stalk the pages of Impossible Monsters spring from the twisted imaginations of a dozen of today’s most noted authors.” This anthology includes Neil Gaiman’s “Click-Clack the Rattlebag” among other tales.

Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan (Kickstarter, July 2013) — “Ellis Rogers is an ordinary guy who has always done the right things and played by the rules. But like many, his life didn’t turn out as he had planned. Facing a terminal disease, he’s willing to gamble that a cure could exist in the future, and although it is insanely dangerous to try, he really has nothing to lose. There are many books that explore what life might be like many years from now, and they cover the spectrum from the idealized world of the original Star Trek, with its progressive stance on equality and civil rights, to Huxley’s dystopian Brave New World. For years I’ve been fascinated by the observation that perception can make people see the same thing in very different ways. So I created a future, which if I’ve done my job properly, will be seen by some as a utopia and by others as exactly the opposite.”

Engn by Simon Kewin (December House, July 2013) — “Finn’s childhood in the valley is idyllic, but across the plains lies a threat. Engn is an ever-growing steam-powered fortress, that needs a never ending supply of workers. Generation after generation have been taken away, escorted into its depths by the mysterious and terrifying Ironclads, never to return. The Masters of Engn first take Finn’s sister, then his best friend, Connor. He thinks he, at least, is safe – until the day the ironclads come to haul him away too.”

The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker (Pamela Dorman Books, Aug 1, 2013) — “Nora Fischer’s dissertation is stalled and her boyfriend is about to marry another woman. During a miserable weekend at a friend’s wedding, Nora wanders off and walks through a portal into a different world where she’s transformed from a drab grad student into a stunning beauty. Before long, she has a set of glamorous new friends and her romance with gorgeous, masterful Raclin is heating up. It’s almost too good to be true. Then the elegant veneer shatters. Nora’s new fantasy world turns darker, a fairy tale gone incredibly wrong.”

Babayaga: A Novel by Toby Barlow (FSG, Aug 6, 2013) — “By the author of Sharp Teeth, a novel of love, spies, and witches in 1950s Paris—and a cop turned into a flea.” — coming to Tantor Audio August 30

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara (Doubleday, Dreamscape Media, August 13) — “In 1950, a young doctor, Norton Perina, signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to the remote island of Ivu’ivu in search of a rumored lost tribe. They succeed, finding not only that tribe but also a group of forest dwellers they dub “The Dreamers,” who turn out to be fantastically long-lived but progressively more senile. Perina suspects the source of their longevity is a hard-to-find turtle; unable to resist the possibility of eternal life, he kills one and smuggles some meat back to the States. He proves his thesis, earning worldwide fame, but he soon discovers that its miraculous property comes at a terrible price. As things quickly spiral out of his control, his own demons take hold, with devastating consequences.”

Transcendental by James Gunn (Tor, Aug 27, 2013) — SFWA Grand Master Gunn’s first novel in several years: “Riley, a veteran of interstellar war, is one of many beings from many different worlds aboard a ship on a pilgrimage that spans the galaxy. However, he is not journeying to achieve transcendence, a vague mystical concept that has drawn everyone else on the ship to this journey into the unknown at the far edge of the galaxy. His mission is to find and kill the prophet who is reputed to help others transcend. While their ship speeds through space, the voyage is marred by violence and betrayal, making it clear that some of the ship’s passengers are not the spiritual seekers they claim to be.”

Young Readers:Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper (Margaret K. McElderry Books and Simon & Schuster Audio, Aug 27, 2013) — a new middle grade novel, this one an historical adventure, from the author of the beloved young reader fantasy series The Dark is Rising

Babayaga by Toby Barlow and Dan Miller (Tantor Audio, Aug 30, 2013) — “By the author of Sharp Teeth, a novel of love, spies, and witches in 1950s Paris—and a cop turned into a flea.” — out in print from FSG on August 6

Channel Zilch by Doug Sharp (Panverse, August 2013) — “Mick Oolfson trashed his astronaut career by stunt-flying a shuttle during re-entry. He’s miserable as a groundling, so when testosterone-surfing geek goddess Heloise Chin offers him an astronaut gig on Channel Zilch, a pirate orbiting reality show, Mick jumps at the chance to return to space, though it means denting his Boy Scout scruples by stealing space shuttle Enterprise from the Smithsonian. CHANNEL ZILCH is a near-future hard science fiction caper with heart and purpose, the first book of The Geek Rapture Project. Book 2, HEL’S BET, will be published by Panverse later in 2013.”

Shaman: A novel of the Ice Age by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit, 3 Sep 2013) — UK release date, US date not confirmed for this historical fiction “novel set in the ice age, about the people who made the paintings in the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France, about 32,000 years ago”

MaddAddam: A Novel by Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese and Random House Audio, September 3) — “Bringing together Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, this thrilling conclusion to Margaret Atwood’s speculative fiction trilogy points toward the ultimate endurance of community, and love.”

23 Years on Fire: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel by Joel Sheppard (Pyr, September 3, 2013) — “Commander Cassandra Kresnov has her hands full. She must lead an assault against the Federation world of Pyeongwha, where a terrible sociological phenomenon has unleashed hell against the civilian population. Then she faces the threat from a portion of League space known as New Torah, in which a ruthless regime of surviving corporations are building new synthetic soldiers but taking the technology in alarming directions.”

The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale (Mulholland Books, September 10) — ‘In the throes of being civilized, East Texas is still a wild, feral place. Oil wells spurt liquid money from the ground. But as Jack’s about to find out, blood and redemption rule supreme. In The Thicket, award-winning novelist Joe R. Lansdale lets loose like never before, in a rip-roaring adventure equal parts True Gritand Stand by Me–the perfect introduction to an acclaimed writer whose work has been called “as funny and frightening as anything that could have been dreamed up by the Brothers Grimm–or Mark Twain” (New York Times Book Review).’

Proxima by Stephen Baxter (Gollanz, Sep 19, 2013) — “The very far future: The Galaxy is a drifting wreck of black holes, neutron stars, chill white dwarfs. The age of star formation is long past. Yet there is life here, feeding off the energies of the stellar remnants, and there is mind, a tremendous Galaxy-spanning intelligence each of whose thoughts lasts a hundred thousand years. And this mind cradles memories of a long-gone age when a more compact universe was full of light…The 27th century: Proxima Centauri.”

The Falconer by Elizabeth May (Gollanz UK, Sep 19) — I don’t see a US release until 2014 for this much-balyhooed debut fantasy

The Ace of Skulls by Chris Wooding (Sep 19, 2013) — final novel in the Ketty Jay series

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (Scribner and Simon & Schuster Audio, September 24) — King returns to The Shining

The Blood Flower Throne by T.L. Morganfield (Panverse, October 19) — “the first book in a feminist retelling of the myths and legends surrounding the Toltec priest-king Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl”

The n-Body Problem by Tony Burgess (ChiZine, October 2013) — “Tony Burgess returns to the realm of the zombie”

The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar (Hodder UK, October 2013) — just announced — “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy meets Watchmen in Tidhar’s The Violent Century, the thoughtful and intensely atmospheric novel about the mystery, and the love story, that determined the course of history itself. The Violent Century is the sweeping drama of a time we know too well; a century of fear and war and hatred and death. In a world where everyday heroes may become übermenschen, men and women with extraordinary powers, what does it mean to be a hero? To be a human? Would the last hundred years have been that much better if Superman were real? Would they even have been all that different?”

Collection: Kabu Kabu by Nnedi Okorafor (Prime, October 2013)

Daturaby Leena Krohn, translated by Juha Tupasela and Anna Volmari (Cheeky Frawg, October 2013) — from the author of World Fantasy finalist Tainaron

Parasite by Mira Grant (Orbit, November 1) — I know nothing about his other than the quite interesting cover…

Anthology:A Cosmic Christmas 2 You edited by Hank Davis (Baen, Nov 5, 2013) — “Twelve new stories of Christmas in very unusual circumstances, ranging from vampires to robots, from the hills of Appalachia to a high orbit space station, all celebrating the holiday in their own, off-beat ways.” Includes stories by (among others) Joe Haldeman, Connie Willis, and Tony Daniel

Hild: A Novel by Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Nov 12, 2013) — “Since Griffith has won the Tiptree, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, the Premio Italia, and the Lambda Literary Award six times, you’re well advised to grab this fictionalized portrait of a girl name Hild who grew up in seventh-century Britain and became St. Hilda’s of Whitby. Griffith gives us a determined and uncannily perceptive Hild who seems capable of predicting the future (or at least of human behavior), a trait that puts her in the life-and-death position of being made the king’s seer. The writing itself is uncannily perceptive, with none of the flowery excess of some historical fiction writing, though the detailed narrative runs close to 600 pages. I thought of Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall even before I noted the comparison in the promotion.” — LibraryJournal

Arcanum by Simon Morden (Orbit, Nov 19) — “A historical fantasy novel of medieval Europe in which the magic that has run the world for centuries is disappearing– and now the gifts of the gods must be replaced with the ingenuity of humanity.”

The Swords of Good Men by Snorri Kristjansson (Jo Fletcher Books, January 7, 2014) — a “Viking fantasy novel” by a new Icelandic author

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.J. Carey (Orbit, Jan 7, 2014) — “Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her ‘our little genius’. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.” — link to cover

Work Done for Hire by Joe Haldeman (Ace Hardcover, January 7, 2014) — novel about an ex-sniper turned sf screenwriter turned reluctant hitman; I’ve hear Haldeman read from this novel in draft and am very much looking forward to its release

Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh by Jay Lake (Prime Books, January 7, 2014) — “Markus Selvage has been bent by life, ground up and spit out again. In San Francisco’s darkest sexual underground, he is a perpetual innocent, looking within bodies – his own and others’ – for the lost secrets of satisfaction. But extreme body modification is only the beginning of where he will go before he’s finished…”

The Emperor’s Blades (The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, #1)by Brian Stavely (Tor, January 2014) — “follows siblings Valyn, Kaden, and Adare, who are in different parts of the world when they learn about the assassination of their father, the Emperor. All of them are in danger of being the next targets, and all of them are caught in the maelstrom of conspiracy, intrigue, treachery, and magic that sweeps through Staveley’s auspicious debut novel.”

Reign of Ash (Book Two in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga) by Gail Z. Martin (Orbit, January 2014) — follow-on to Ice Forged

Annihilation (Southern Reach, Volume 1)by Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, Feb 4, 2014) — the first of a trilogy of “Southern Reach” novels being published in 2014 — “For thirty years, Area X has remained mysterious, remote, and concealed by the government as an environmental disaster zone even though it is to all appearances pristine wilderness. For thirty years, too, the secret agency known as the Southern Reach has monitored Area X and sent in expeditions to try to discover the truth. Some expeditions have suffered terrible consequences. Others have reported nothing out of the ordinary. Now, as Area X seems to be changing and perhaps expanding, the next expedition will attempt to succeed where all others have failed. What is happening in Area X? What is the true nature of the invisible border that surrounds it?”

The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes (Gollanz UK, 17 Apr 2014) — from the author of Tome of the Undergates

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (Hodder & Stoughton, April 2014) — “The Nigerian megacity of Lagos is invaded by aliens, and it nearly consumes itself because of it.”

The Moon King by Neil Williamson (Newcon, April 2014) — Debut novel: “The story of The Moon King grew out of its setting, the sea-locked city of Glassholm, which is a thinly veneered version of Glasgow, Scotland where I live. Glasgow is a city of mood swings, brilliant with sun and warm sandstone one minute and dour with overcast and rain soaked tarmac the next. Summer days are long and filled with light. The winter months pass mostly in darkness. Living here, your spirit is tied to the city’s mood. As soon as I hooked that almost bipolar sense to the idea of natural cycles, the story blossomed. In Glassholm, the moon never sets and everything, from entropy to the moods of the populace, is affected by its phasing from Full to Dark and back to Full again. I wanted to know what would life be like there, what quirks nature might throw into the mix. And what would happen if it was discovered that the cyclic euphorias and depressions were not natural after all.”

Immolation (Children, #1) by Ben Peek (Tor UK, Spring 2014) is “set fifteen thousand years after the War of the Gods. The bodies of the gods now lie across the world, slowly dying as men and women awake with strange powers that are derived from their bodies. Ayae, a young cartographer’s apprentice, is attacked and discovers she cannot be harmed by fire. Her new power makes her a target for an army that is marching on her home. With the help of the immortal Zaifyr, she is taught the awful history of ‘cursed’ men and women, coming to grips with her new powers and the enemies they make. The saboteur Bueralan infiltrates the army that is approaching her home to learn its terrible secret. Split between the three points of view, Immolation‘s narrative reaches its conclusion during an epic siege, where Ayae, Zaifyr and Bueralan are forced not just into conflict with those invading, but with those inside the city who wish to do them harm.”

Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson (Tor, Spring 2014) — “Caeli-Amur: a city torn by contradiction. A city of languorous philosopher-assassins and magnificent creatures from ancient myth: minotaurs and sirens. Three Houses rule over an oppressed citizenry stirring into revolt. The ruins of Caeli-Amur’s sister city lie submerged beneath the sea nearby, while the remains of strange advanced technology lie hidden in the tunnels beneath the city itself.”

The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne (Random House/Crown, May 2014) — “traces the harrowing twin journeys of two women forced to flee their homes in different times in the near future. The first, Meena, is a Brahmin-caste student whose odyssey takes her from the coastal city of Mumbai toward Djibouti across a futuristic but treacherous bridge that spans the Arabian Sea. The second, Mariama, escapes from slavery as a small child in Mauritania, joining a caravan heading across Saharan Africa toward Ethiopia.”

The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula Jones (Greenwillow, Summer 2014) — “Fans of the late writer Diana Wynne Jones – who died in March 2011 – are in for an unexpected treat. In the summer of 2014, Greenwillow will publish a new title from the acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author. Titled The Islands of Chaldea, the book is a standalone novel unconnected to any of the author’s earlier works. It is also the result of an unusual, asynchronous collaboration between the writer and her younger sister, Ursula Jones.”

The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (Viking, August 2014) — book three after The Magicians and The Magician King